The One Thing That Separates Entrepreneurs from Everyone Else

We have the incredible privilege of working with a lot of entrepreneurs to make The Hum happen. Working with incredibly determined, intelligent, and insightful people each day has its perks. Each Wednesday, we share another piece of what we’ve learned from our journey working with some of the most inspiring people around.

We’ve been working with entrepreneurs day in and day out for months now. Part of our mission is to bring the idea to the masses that entrepreneurs are everyday people just like you and me. Sure, they are intelligent, driven people and sure, any good entrepreneur will tell you there is a whole lot of luck associated with their success, but, for the most part, they are normal.

Despite this, we have noticed one giant difference between entrepreneurs and everyone else — they have overcome their fear of failure.

And I phrase it that way for a reason. I’ve heard many people say that entrepreneurs aren’t afraid to fail. That could not be further from the truth. Entrepreneurs are absolutely terrified of failure.

It’s that very fear that drives them to be great. The fact that they are able to act in spite of it is what makes them special.

Entrepreneurs obsess over failure

The concept of failure is obsessed over in the entrepreneurial world. Idioms like “fail fast, fail often” are thrown around and constantly debated. A Bing search reveals countless articles about why entrepreneurs fail, the truth about failure, and examples of those who became successful after failing. (Just kidding about that Bing search.)

We even themed an entire email around entrepreneurs who failed hard and bounced back.

And the recognition of failure is scattered throughout whenever an entrepreneur speaks (or writes) about their journey.

In yesterday’s article about self-doubt, Brittany DiCapua titled a section, “Am I Good Enough?” and wondered, “I am a biomedical engineer turned software project manager with social knowledge I have acquired only through immersion in my personal platform. Was this enough?”

From our interview with photographer Donal Boyd, “Failure is the hardest thing that people have to deal with in the beginning. You’ll get back a lot of “no” answers and you won’t get back any response… but you have to keep trying.”

Will Dean, CEO of Tough Mudder, wrote about resilience, “Some of the obstacles you face as an entrepreneur will be expected. Others will come out of nowhere and demand even more resilience — they’ll be the things you didn’t plan and couldn’t possibly anticipate.”

And we ourselves think about failure all the time.

They don’t teach failure

Being an entrepreneur is not safe. It is anything but.

The risk is real. Every day, we look at our stagnate, if not declining, bank accounts and think about our future selves and families. What if we were pulling down high salaries at tech jobs right now? Our future, and the future of our families, would be a lot more secure.

Failure in entrepreneurship does not result in a bad grade, or a tough conversation with your boss, or a lack of a bonus. Those are all real risks to be sure, but in entrepreneurship, the risks are often even higher.

But why are we so fearful of failure? Why do so few people take on the high-risk, high-reward entrepreneurial lifestyle?

Because we aren’t taught to.

College and our school systems do a disservice to the entrepreneurial mindset. They do not teach you how to deal with failure. They teach you that you can often be lazy, give a mediocre effort, get mediocre results, and be perfectly fine.

Perhaps serial entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk put it best in this video.

“School is failing entrepreneurs every single day… You’re being taught to stay within the lines… When you go from 12, 15, 18 years of that ecosystem and you go into a market and create an app… the market doesn’t give a crap (about your past), the market responds to the product… and a lot of these kids have not been able to take the punch in the mouth that comes along with entrepreneurship.”

Despite this — despite being educated for 18 years to stay inside the lines, avoid risk, follow the rules, and get by — entrepreneurs choose to make themselves vulnerable, to jump and build wings later, to fail. This is what makes them different.

Take on an entrepreneur’s mindset

Even if you are not an entrepreneur, we can all take on the entrepreneurial mindset when it comes to failure.

Overcome your fear of failure, embrace it, and conquer it head on.

Once you overcome your fear of failing, something extraordinary happens. You become dangerous. You have the ability to try new things, make an absolute fool of yourself, punch way out of your weight class, take stupid risks, and take on new adventures way before you know you are ready.

What would you do right now if you knew you could not fail? Think in those terms. Appreciate how powerful that is.

Talk to your boss about taking on that project you have no business leading, start that side project you think about at night, sign up for that race, write that book, learn that new skill, buy expensive equipment for that thing you don’t even know how to do yet.

As long as you are acting on passion, enriching your life, and making some small impact, even if you do not find success, you cannot possibly fail.

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